Dear all.
Is anyone in this group working on advocacy in the World Intellectual
Property Organization, specifically in SCCR [1]?
I will be happy to join you to prepare something for the next meeting in
April.
Cheers,
[1] http://www.wipo.int/policy/en/sccr/
--
David
http://nomono.co/david
Guess what! Elections are in four months, which gives everyone less than
three months to wrap up the files they have been working on for years.
Copyright, terrorist content, privacy open data, disinformation -
everything's hot and everything's messy. So much so that Brexit becomes a
side-issue with Germany’s FM using the wrong flag emoji
<https://twitter.com/GermanyDiplo/status/1090577807716114433?utm_source=POLI…>
for Ireland getting plenty attention. But back to our issues:
Copyright Reform - It's Stalling, But Is It Stumbling?: With time running
out and after the Parliament negotiators and the Romanian Presidency seemed
have agreed on workable compromises, there was a realistic expectation that
we might have final deal last week. But alas, a whopping 11 Member States
voted against
<https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3069625/eu-copyright-directive-on…>
it. And while seeing such a solid blocking minority supported by large
countries like Germany, Italy and Poland gives hope, we shouldn’t think
it’s over.
Copyright Reform - Macron Calls Merkel: A Council majority now basically
depends on on Germany giving up opposition. And Germany’s red line is that
small and medium sized platforms must be carved out of the new liability
rules (Article 13). Something France vehemently opposes. If the two
countries agree on this issue, we’re likely to see a reform. This is highly
political, which is why Merkel received a phone call from Macron
<https://twitter.com/fandoetlis/status/1090710347516989440> yesterday. We
don’t know yet how it played out.
TERREG - Fixing anti-terrorist measures: There is a proposal to lay out new
rules on how platforms have to deal with terrorist content
<https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?refere…>
online. Wikimedia cares because:
a) We fall fully under the scope.
b) The proposal contains measures leading to automatic content filtering.
c) Referrals are broad and would allow government agencies to demand
removal of legal content with insufficient judicial oversight.
We are now working with the parliamentary committees to propose
improvements, such as better definition of targeted content, redress
mechanisms, transparency rules and more precisely defined scope. We expect
committee votes to take place throughout February and March, but would be
surprised to see this regulation adopted by this legislature.
More Open Data - A Quick & Dirty Reform: Now this was quick! A trilogue
deal on the Directive formerly known as the “Public Sector Information
Directive” was reached last week
<http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-525_en.htm>. Henceforth it
shall be known as the “Directive on Open Data and Public Sector
Information”. Bottom line, it is a good step forward in this field. There
situations in in which public bodies can restrict re-use of and charge for
access to data have been further limited. A number of “high value datasets”
will be opened up across the EU, such as company registers, transport and
geospatial data. For these, APIs must be provided. The Commission might
edit the list of such "high value datasets" without new reform. It will set
up a working group.
Disinformation - Commission Rattles Sabre: The major commercial online
platforms signed on to a Code of Practice
<https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/code-practice-disinforma…>
by which they vowed to take measures against disinformation ahead of the
European Parliament elections in May. They were partially motivated to sign
up to this by the Commission's threat to regulate if they don't. A
first assessment
of measures taken
<http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-746_en.htm?utm_source=POLITICO.E…>
is out and unsurprisingly the EU wants more. But as there is virtually no
time left to regulate before the elections, the main coercion instrument is
gone. It will be interesting to observe how the measures play out in
practice over the next few months. On a somewhat related note, discussions
within the Bulgarian Wikimedia Community to close down Bulgarian Wikinews
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects/Deletion_of_…>
are ongoing. Part of the reason is that it has been misused for the spread
of disinformation in the past.
In the neighbourhood - Serbia Looks to Brussels for Copyright: The Serbian
government is looking into updating their copyright rules and is looking to
Brussels for inspiration. The OSCE organised an event at which yours truly
and the President of the European Federation of Journalists argued next to
Serbian government representatives
<https://www.glasamerike.net/a/kori%C5%A1%C4%87enje-autorskog-dela-mora-biti…>
about the related right for press publishers. Still at working group stage,
so no decisions have been taken yet.
Big Fat Brussels Meeting - Date Is Set: We are ready to call it! The dates
of this year’s Big Fat Brussels Meeting will be 1-2 June. Sorry to the ones
who can't, but the mighty dudle has spoken
<https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/BFBM19/>. This will be exactly one week
after the EP elections, so we will focus on making outreach plans targeted
at the newly elected. More details soon.
======
This and previous reports on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
Hi policy list,
I want to make you all aware of an opening at Yale Law School for the
Wikimedia/Yale
Law School Initiative on Intermediaries and Information (WIII)
<https://law.yale.edu/isp/join-us>. The fellowship is part of a
collaboration between the Yale Information Society Project and the
Wikimedia Foundation to help promote access to information and support a
free and open internet.
Members of the Wikimedia communities with a strong background in law,
technology, and public policy are ideal candidates, so I want to make you
all aware of the position.
Best,
Jacob
--
Jacob Rogers
Senior Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
NOTICE: This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the
Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical reasons I cannot give legal advice
to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff
members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see
our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.
Hi all,
As every year we will come together for a EU policy related meeting or
workshop sometime before summer. As we have European Parliament elections
this year in May, it would make most sense to meet one of the weekends
after that. This way we can analyse the newly elected parliament and set up
outreach plans.
Please fill out the "date matcher" to figure out which weekend is best:
https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/BFBM19/
Thanks and cheers,
Dimi